4
Assigning the Work to Different Volunteers
Introduction
This session examines Nehemiah 3:1-32, highlighting how disgraced believers properly responded to their assigned roles and how diverse individuals cooperated in organizing efforts. It shows how different people were assigned various tasks and participated in rebuilding the broken wall. We should never exclude the Persecuted Church from rebuilding their own broken walls—whether in marriage, parenting, discipling, teaching, or mentoring. This chapter powerfully demonstrates unity, leadership, and community responsibility. Participants included priests, goldsmiths, perfume-makers, rulers, and women, illustrating that everyone had a part in this effort.
Objectives
By the end of this session, the learner will have:
- Understood how to motivate the local fellowship to be part of rebuilding the wall by looking at the case study of Nehemiah
- Identified different classes of people rebuilding the wall and the role they played
- Analyzed the importance of unity and collaboration in achieving a large, common goal.
- Identified the leadership qualities Nehemiah exhibited in organizing and delegating responsibility.
- Reflected on their own gifts and roles within their community or church, similar to the varied workers in this chapter.
- Appreciated that serving God often requires teamwork and overcoming obstacles.
Outline
- Assigning the work of rebuilding
- Different classes of people, teamwork
- Lessons in rebuilding
- Delegation
- Community responsibility
Group Study Time
Nehemiah 3: 1-32
Connecting
- Gather with two or more people for a community discovery bible study session.
- Start with a heartfelt prayer, inviting God to guide and bless your understanding.
- Explore the passage by reading it at least twice, using different Bible versions if available, then retell the story together as a group.
- Reflect and share the challenges and blessings you experienced from the previous study.
Comprehending
- Identify the class of people who were assigned in the rebuilding of the wall, either by their titles, their towns, their professions, their families, their genders, etc. Make a list of those assigned, citing the verse. Eg, verse 1, verse 8, verse 12, verse 17, and verse 32. How many groups of people did you identify? Who are some of the unexpected people involved in the construction, and what does that say about God’s work?
- What is delegation? Discuss the following 4 reasons why it was necessary for Nehemiah to delegate work to different people. ( the reasons are building was a lot of work, there were few workers, there was limited time, there were many enemies)
- What does the “repairing…opposite his own house” model teach us about how to serve our communities today? What role did the high priest play, and what does his involvement suggest about the spiritual nature of this physical project?
- In contrast to the others, why did the “nobles of Tekoa” refuse to help, and what can we learn from that?
- What lessons have you learned about rebuilding? Such as in these verses, verse 5, verse 11, 19-20, 21, 24, 27, etc
- What “broken walls” (social, physical, or spiritual) need repair in your own life or community? What is one practical way you can stop waiting for others and take personal responsibility for a, “section” of God’s work?
Committing
- Engage with the Bible—read, study, memorize, meditate, pray, listen, and live it out.
- List three lessons you have learnt as an agent of change that you would like to put into practice and teach others about.
- Take time and worship Jesus with the attributes revealed about Christ.
- Use the SPACEPETS model, to assist you in putting God’s word into practice. Look for:
- Sin to confess
- Promise to claim
- Attitude to change
- Command to keep
- Error to change
- Prayer to make
- Example to copy
- Truth to obey and
- Something praiseworthy
Communicating
- Identify one person you can connect with and share the valuable insights and lessons you gained from this session.
- Reach out to a new believer—either in person or by phone—and pray with them to support them through their challenges, including any concerns about attending church.
- Create a new group and guide others through this study to help them grow in their understanding.